Honolulu Lite
The Star-Bulletin recently ran a fascinating in-depth piece on the invasion of alien species into Hawaii which pointed out that the first feral pig got here in 1770 but the first sow bug didn't reach the islands until 1805. I guess that means pigs, at least sows, had 35 relatively bug-free years. Islands are filled with
‘who da guys’Hawaii has more endangered species than anywhere else on Earth, and apparently all of them are tasty, so that when a new species lands in the islands, either by accident on purpose, it is greeted with a smorgasbord of delicious indigenous plants and animals to munch on. Although, I don't know how you can use the word "indigenous" to describe plants and animals that simply got to Hawaii a little while before the next aliens arrived. Everything living in the Hawaiian Islands is an alien species, considering the islands started off as a pile of hot rocks in the middle of the Pacific. As soon as the lava cooled, foreigners started clambering aboard.
The first Polynesians to land here brought canoe-loads of alien species: bugs, plants, animals ... themselves.
The newspaper report laid out a time line of how and when some of the more exotic and annoying critters got here. For instance, the Southern house mosquito didn't get here until 1825, apparently waiting for some Southern-style houses to be built. The subterranean termite didn't arrive until 1868, but when you consider they started digging their way under the ocean from San Francisco in 1534, they made pretty good time. The mosquitofish got here in 1905, and the Southern house mosquitofish never got here at all.
But I noticed a few major gaps in the time line and did a little research on my own. Here are some little-known key dates in Hawaii history when alien visitors first arrived:
1783: First Indonesian eyebrow mite arrives on the left eyebrow of the "third paddling guy from the front" on a voyaging canoe.
1794: First luscious jumbo-legged snow crab arrives on a piece of driftwood from the Aleutians. The badly sunburned and confused crustacean, Hawaii's first endangered species, lives for 45 minutes in the islands before becoming part of a pupu platter.
1902: First bagel arrives hidden in the baggage of a Jewish merchant seaman. A short-lived bagel colony was established on Molokai's west shore.
1953: Tin foil arrives.
1963: The islands' first dance choreographers arrive. After a raucous nine months in quarantine, they are released into the wild.
1972: The first feral dog arrives, realizes he's not on Guam and quickly departs.
1983: A creature from the Bubble Nebula of Cassiopeia lands, has a very unsatisfactory discussion with a bit of algae under a rock on Kauai and returns home with a slight cough that amazingly wipes out only half of his race.
Charles Memminger, winner of National Society of Newspaper Columnists awards, appears Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. E-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com